Principles of Operation of Torque Power (absorbing) Dynamometers
An absorbing dynamometer acts as a load that is driven by the prime mover that is under test (e.g. Pelton wheel). The dynamometer must be able to operate at any speed and load to any level of torque that the test requires.
Absorbing dynamometers are not to be confused with "inertia" dynamometers, which calculate power solely by measuring power required to accelerate a known mass drive roller and provide no variable load to the prime mover.
An absorption dynamometer is usually equipped with some means of measuring the operating torque and speed.
The Power Absorption Unit of a dynamometer absorbs the power developed by the prime mover. This power absorbed by the dynamometer is then converted into heat, which generally dissipates into the ambient air or transfers to cooling water that dissipates into the air. Regenerative dynamometers, in which the prime mover drives a DC motor as a generator to create load, make excess DC power and potentially - using a DC/AC inverter - can feed AC power back into the commercial electrical power grid, where the power produced is eventually converted back into heat (as in an oven or light bulb).
Absorption dynamometers can be equipped with two types of control systems to provide different main test types.
Read more about this topic: Dynamometer
Famous quotes containing the words principles, operation, torque and/or power:
“To abandon oneself to principles is really to die—and to die for an impossible love which is the contrary of love.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“Poetry uses the hub of a torque converter for a jello mold.”
—Diane Glancy (b. 1941)
“The farmer imagines power and place are fine things. But the President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace, and the best of his manly attributes. To preserve for a short time so conspicuous an appearance before the world, he is content to eat dust before the real masters who stand erect behind the throne.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)